Buddy vs The Peanut Butter Jar

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I love when Buddy lays like this. Crazy frog legs.

He was following me all over the house and driving me crazy earlier. I gave him a peanut butter jar so he would get out from under my feet.

It worked.

So, I got another pair of fun tights. But, in my defense, they were free! Victoria's Secret was having a sale where if you bought a sports bra, you got a pair of workout pants for free! Plus, I actually needed a new sports bra. They're super comfy, and they're thicker than some of my other tights.

They apparently also glow in the dark.

I had to shift my runs around for the week so I could spend hours at the laundromat yesterday. I had put it off longer than usual, so everything took forever to dry. I can't wait until we have a washer and dryer again!

My post-laundry sock collection was pretty impressive.

These Balega socks are definitely my favorite running socks. Tom gets me new ones every Christmas. I have THESE and THESE. They're the best.

My run today was a kind of loose-y goose-y tempo run. It was only supposed to be 30 minutes, so I ran comfortably hard (such a runner term) for the middle 15 minutes. Aside from the headache I got from breathing the freezing air, it was a really nice run. As much as I always dread speed work, the more I do it, the better I feel about it.

Would you rather do speed work or run long? I will run all day long - just don't make me sprint!

Time Flies

Well, hi there!

I feel like I haven't posted anything in forever! I keep thinking about it, and just haven't made it to the computer. There have actually been days this week that I never turned my computer on, which is rare.

I can't even say what has been keeping me away, because thinking back over the last few days, I don't really know. I don't feel like I've been doing much more than usual, but I must be, because the days keep flying by.

I've been: teaching classes, moving firewood, helping Tom assemble a garage-in-a-box for the tractor, going to the grocery store, making dinner, doing dishes, doing laundry, Christmas shopping...just living life I guess.

I actually started writing this on Wednesday afternoon, and here we are and it's Thursday. Whoops!

My running has been generally lazy since my run with the group on Saturday, but I did get in a good 4 miles worth of intervals this afternoon. I am still liking my Moov Now a lot, and I will try to get a review up for you. Eventually.

I spent more time than I care to admit carefully peeling that blue Nuun sticker off of a box today so I could add it to my training log.

The box was from this cute skullcap that I won on Twitter last week. Yay free stuff!

In case you're having Buddy withdrawals, here's a picture from the other night when he invited himself onto the couch. 

Anything new and exciting with you? How's the Christmas shopping going?

Running, Yoga, and Buddy in a Hat

Nothing terribly exciting around these parts lately. This week has flown by and I feel like all I've done is teach classes, do dishes, run and decide what to have for dinner.

That's pretty much life, right? Deciding what to eat for dinner every. single. day. Mom, I'm sorry for all the times you asked what we wanted for dinner and we didn't help at all.

I completed my 30 days of yoga challenge. I actually did every day and didn't skip any!

And - get this - I'm still doing yoga. I have seen noticeable improvements in my strength and flexibility, and while I'm still a long ways off from being a super bendy yogi, I'm way better than a month ago.

Please enjoy this random photo dump from the week:

I've been researching showers and bath tubs for the new bathrooms. It's not a kind of shopping I find fun.

The obligatory weekly trip to the laundromat.

My computer did this again. It happens so often now that I don't even freak out anymore. As long as it turns back on - we're good.

Buddy hates when I get in his face to take a picture.

A little post-run Nuun and my new Moov. I ran a cadence workout on Wednesday with the Moov; it was interesting. The focus was on shorter, quicker steps, and since it can tell your range of motion (you wear it on your ankle when running) it yells at informs you when you are striding out too much. The shorter steps feel odd, and a little bit like I'm shuffling, but it is allegedly a more efficient way to run once you're used to it. We'll see.

I never knew how much work wood stoves were to get them burning efficiently. I'm not good at it yet.

Wild Sockeye salmon was $7.99/lb instead of $14.99/lb the other day. I couldn't pass that up! Tom made a fancy salmon - the picture doesn't really show how pretty it was.

Just harassing the dog. As usual.

The longer I was in the store the other day, the less healthy my choices became. This was a little odd, but also pretty addicting. Luckily it's a small bag.

Buddy and I went for a run this afternoon, and then I harassed him with my Nuun hat.

I can't help myself.

How was your week? Anything fun planned for the weekend?

I'm Going to Throw a Laundry Party

 It's been a little chilly around here the last few mornings.

It even snowed for a little bit on Sunday. Fortunately, it didn't stick. We were hoping the cold would hold off for a little longer because we don't have heat on the first floor right now. The heat in the house is baseboard, and they had to drain and cut some of it out in the addition. The upstairs heat still works, and our new wood stove should be here sometime this week. Soon we'll be toasty warm!

I spent another thrilling morning at the laundromat. You have no idea how excited I am going to be when we finally have a washer and dryer at home again. Seriously, I may throw a laundry party.

On the bright side, I do get some reading done at the laundromat.

The house is all wrapped up (in Tyvek, not wrapped up as in finished), and most of the roof is on now. I climbed up and checked out the second floor and the attic today. The interior walls are framed now, so I got more of a sense of what the rooms are going to look like.

It's pretty cool!

As far as workouts go, there haven't been a lot. I have been doing a bit of yoga, and took Buddy for a couple of short runs. I don't want to jump back into training mode, but I am also trying to figure out what works for me when I don't have a schedule to stick to.

Buddy's Big Adventure and New Running Things

Buddy went on an adventure this afternoon. I had an order from Brooks (yay running stuff!), and when the FedEx man came to the door, Buddy bolted. He visited a couple of neighbor's houses and played keep away for a little while before Tom sat on the grass and Buddy came running over. Brat.

Needless to say, we need to work on his off-leash training.

I had my first official run as part of my marathon training plan today. It was only 3 miles, but in the 83 degree weather, that was fine by me. I just kept telling myself that these painful runs in the heat will make cooler weather running feel SO much easier.

This is my new tank top I bought from Brooks. It's super lightweight, and has a nice flowy fit. I'm excited to take it out for my run tomorrow.

I also ordered a new sports bra since mine are a little ancient, but I didn't read the reviews as well as I should have, and it doesn't fit. Boo.

We don't currently have a washer and dryer at the house (well, we have a washer, but we don't know if it works, and it's not super useful on its own), so I spent forever at the laundromat on Monday. Do you know how many quarters it takes to start a medium sized washing machine?

15.

You read that right, 15 quarters!

I'm pretty sure the last time I went to a laundromat it took maybe 5 or 6 quarters to do a load.

Some new goodies from Nuun arrived on Monday, I'm excited to try out the new Plus for Nuun - I'll have plenty of opportunities this training cycle!

Buddy is getting a little less freaked out when we leave the house, though he's still crying like we abandoned him.

He likes to keep us close.

Spring Weather is Hard to Dress For

I took this week easy. I did a couple of easy runs on the treadmill, but otherwise haven't done much since the race last weekend.

This morning I was up bright and early to meet up with the group for our trail run. It was in the 40s, but windy, so I wasn't sure what to wear. I took buddy out to do a weather check and decided to wear capris, a tank, a half zip and my smart wool headband. 

By mile 2 the half zip was tied around my waist and by mile 4 the headband was looped through one of the arms of the half zip. Spring weather is hard to dress for. 

We were moving at a pretty good pace, though the hills reminded me that it hasn't been that long since West Point. It was good to catch up with my running buddies since I hadn't seen most of them for a few weeks. We were all pretty excited because we were back to our regular trails - the snow is finally gone! We ran 6.6 miles at around a 9:16 pace according to my TomTom. Everyone insists that the run is 7 miles, and my GPS always comes up short. Blame it on the hills.

This afternoon I did laundry (1 load of running gear and 1 of normal clothes). It still needs to be folded, but I'm counting it as a win. 

My computer is getting slower every day. I actually wrote most of this post on my phone because it was faster.

Buddy has been in absolute heaven the last few days since it has actually been sunny out. He just sleeps in the sun and periodically gets up to stretch.

And in other exciting news: I finally found this ice cream!

Um, yes please. I'll take one for after every long run please. That totally balances out, right? :) Anyway, it's good stuff, you should track some down.

I hope you're having a good weekend so far!

Oops

I missed my final run before the race.

I was supposed to have one last short mile repeat session on Thursday, but I ended up taking a nap instead. Kicking this cold seemed more important than getting that last run in. I decided that I wasn't going to make any huge gains with one more run anyway, but now I feel a little off. I haven't run since Wednesday, and I'm not going to run until tomorrow morning at the race. We'll see how that goes.

I can't even begin to set a time goal for tomorrow. It's the hilliest race I've ever run, and I haven't raced since October.

Our hope (a couple of my much faster weekend running buddies are also running) was that we wouldn't have to wear jackets for the race, but it's looking like it will be in the upper 20s when the gun goes off. Jackets and gloves it is.

Buddy loves when I sit on the floor.

Please ignore my half-closed eyes and focus on how cute this dog face is.

He's pretty sure he's a tiny little lap dog.

And some cool fog from the other day.

Now I'm off to finish some laundry, figure out what I'm wearing tomorrow and keep myself busy so I don't just sit here and think about the terrible, terrible hills.

Impressing the Neighbors

I have gotten really bad about taking pictures lately. I still don't have a picture of my car. It's white - you can use your imagination ;)

We got a few more inches of snow yesterday/last night. I don't know how much we actually got because most of it melted off today. Yes, that's right, it was above freezing! Everyone was terribly excited.

I didn't do my long run over the weekend because I just didn't have time, so I did it today instead. my training plan called for 13 miles, but there's something ingrained in me that prevents me from stopping at 13 miles when 13.1 is so close. I ended up at 13.1 miles in 2:04:41, not bad for a training run.

I put off shoveling the driveway (mostly just a walkway because my car takes up most of the driveway) until after my run, so I'm sure the neighbors were impressed with my outfit of running shoes, running skirt, and down jacket.

Buddy and I drove around while people looked at the house. It was too dark and cold for use to do anything else. They stayed a decent amount of time so we ended up parking in the visitor parking at the townhouse waiting for them to leave. Buddy was pretty confused, but ended up deciding to sleep rather than continuing to pace the backseat.

And now I'm off to fold laundry, because I have been avoiding it all afternoon.

You Can't go Wrong with Waffles

I swear I'm either really productive, or really lazy - there is no in between.

It's impossible to keep the tile in our entryway clean, especially with muddy Buddy paws running around, but I decided to clean it this morning. I also vacuumed all the chunks of Buddy's toys up off the carpet so they will stop sticking to my socks.

I made myself some waffles for breakfast.

You can't go wrong with waffles.

I did a bunch of laundry and then spent a while thinking about how much I didn't want to run. Then I realized how ridiculous that was. It was only a couple of weeks ago that I was dying to be able to run again. How quickly we forget.

The first 20 minutes of my run was spent picking something to watch, and then deciding that I didn't want to watch it. I ended up watching Desert Runners. It follows a group of people running 4 ultra marathons through deserts all over the world (Egypt, China, Chile and Antarctica).

Holy cow, those people are crazy! There's something right about watching a movie about running while you run though. It just feels so wrong to watch something like that while I sit on the couch.

I ended up running 12 miles in 1:55:18, a 9:36 pace. Not too shabby. Good thing too, it's only 6 weeks until the West Point Half!

Now I'm watching the Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary special. I love it when the cast breaks character and starts cracking up. Anyone else watching?

Some Early Thoughts on PiYo

There was a decent amount of snow falling this morning. Buddy and I felt that it was much too early to have snow blowing in our faces.

I made a super delicious breakfast with an English muffin, guacamole, greens and eggs.

It was a good way to start the morning. Much better than the snow in my face.

I did two PiYo workouts today. The first one was Define: Upper Body. It was a short one, about 20 minutes, and honestly, it didn't feel like it even counted as working out for the day. Next up was Sweat. This one meant business. It was about 35 minutes and I was definitely sweating! I liked the variety of moves, and the fact that it has a countdown on the screen so if you're in a tough segment you can check it and decide that yes, you can actually do that for another 30 seconds. The two combined made for a good workout!

Some things I like about PiYo so far (as I have done 3 workouts I am now clearly an expert):

• The pace: it uses a lot of yoga moves that I was already familiar with, but is more up tempo. Plus, the variety of moves makes time go pretty quickly. 
• It's low impact strength and stretching. The style of workout is so different from what I'm used to, but that's why I think it's a good complement to my running. I already feel like my muscles are less tight than they have been.
• The feeling I have when I'm finished. It's a relaxed soreness that kind of reminds me of how I feel after a massage.
• I like the instructor. She doesn't yell at me or want me to throw up (I'm looking at you Jillian Michaels). She wants you to work hard, but is more worried about keeping correct form than killing yourself.

Some things I don't like:

• Every workout ends with an ad for Shakeology (a Beachbody meal replacement shake) or some skincare product. I paid for workout program, not the home shopping network on dvd.
• The cost of the program. I actually found my PiYo on Ebay for about $30 (please don't hate me if you're a Beachbody coach), but if you buy it through Beachbody it's around $73. That just seems insane to me (and this is one of their cheaper programs), especially since they're still trying to sell you more things even after you buy the program. 
• There is such a thing as PiYo burpees. Need I say more?

If you do decide to poke around on Ebay (or another site) just be aware that there are a LOT of fake copies of Beachbody programs floating around. 

I managed to convince myself to do some laundry and the dishes this afternoon, but otherwise have had a pretty mellow day. 

And if anyone has control over these things: Buddy would like the snow to please go away now. Thanks!

 What's your least-favorite workout move? Mine is burpees, hands down.

Getting Better and New Music

It's crazy how much being sick takes out of you.

My fever finally went away this morning, but my appetite isn't back full force yet, and my energy levels are laughable. Everything I did today took forever. Tom reminded me that I spent pretty much the entire day yesterday on the couch, so I shouldn't expect to be in top form just yet.

Patience is not my strong suit.

I did manage to accomplish a few things today, they just took longer than they should have. I did the dishes (in 15 minute increments because I kept getting tired), two loads of laundry (I even folded it and put it all away!), and walked the pooch (what? that's an accomplishment, I didn't go outside yesterday).

Since I'm not interesting at all today, I thought I would share a couple new (to my playlist) songs.

One Republic - I Lived

Mark Ronson + Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk

And this is just a really cute video - Andy Grammer - Honey I'm Good

Hope you're having a good week!